The present disclosure relates to a network device that processes packets.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventor, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
A pipeline-type packet processing device typically includes processing stages arranged to process packets in what is understood as a pipeline configuration. In a pipeline configuration, packets are processed in stages with packets progressing from stage to stage through the pipeline. In some packet processing pipelines, such as a dataflow packet processing pipeline, respective stages are programmable. A stage in the packet processing pipeline receives a packet that had been processed at one or more previous stages, along with a processing context for the packet. Various resources, such as for example various table lookups, that are to be used by the respective stages in a packet processing pipeline typically are provided by units that are external to the packet processing pipeline and that are accessed by the stages when those services are needed to perform a processing operation.